Ministry of Health in Jordan to facilitate corneal transplantation

The Jordanian Ministry of Health (MOH) announced that is going to put more efforts to facilitate corneal transplants for patients staying at public hospitals. Dr. Nayef Fayez, the Ministry of health, said that his ministry is going to collaborate with eye surgery specialists to carry out transplant operations at ministry hospitals supported with the needed facilities.

Dr. Fayez added that a number of 110 corneal transplant operations took place recently at Prince Hamzah Hospital; he noted that around 250 cornea transplant operations are carried out in Jordanian public hospitals annually. Dr. Fayez stressed that these operations represent a step towards the plan conducted by the Ministry of Health to fight blindness in Jordan.

In the same time, there are calls from the Friends of the Eye Bank Society for more cornea donations, as there are more than 2000 patients waiting for corneal transplantation procedures. Ahmad Shaker, the society’s secretary general, said that there are about 4000 corneas donated in Jordan during the last 30 years, there are other 5000 corneas obtained by importation from other countries. Shaker noted that each surgery costs about JD600, while an imported cornea costs about JD1, 250. He said “We want to reach a stage where people realize the importance of cornea donation to restore and save people’s sight,”